Skip to main content

World championship skier nearly wiped out by falling drone

World championship skier nearly wiped out by falling drone

Share this story

If you watch the video above, you'll see Austrian skier Marcel Hirscher at the Alpine Skiing World Cup in Italy, gracefully rocking back and forth on his big ski sticks, gliding down a mountain with the grace of a dolphin in tropical waters. Then, suddenly, a big spider-looking thing comes crashing down to the ground immediately behind Hirscher. It's a drone, and, had things been different, it would've completely wiped him out. But they weren't, and it didn't.

This was likely a camera drone set up by media or the event organizers, and, on some level, equipment malfunction is a given at almost any big event. Still, this isn't the first time a drone has posed a risk in the spectator sports world: In 2013, a stray camera drone plunged into the unsuspecting crowd at a bull run in Virginia.